Date and time notation in Denmark

Date

In Denmark, the official^[1][2][3] and traditionally used standard is DD.MM.(YY)YY (e.g., 24.12.2006 for Christmas Eve or 01.05.2006 for Labour Day). This is by far the most common system. Dots and hyphens are the most common separator, although you still see stroke and hyphen (especially in handwriting): 24/12-2005. According to the official rules in Retskrivningsordbogen,^[3] there shall not be zeros before 1 and 5 in the date 1.5.2006, but it is quite common with them: 01.05.2006.^[4]

Days and months are written in lower case, often beginning with the definite article "den" (or abbreviated "d."), e.g. "mandag(,) d. 4. januar" ("Monday the 4th of January").^[3]

Week numbering is also very common both written and orally, albeit less so in private life.

The week always begins on Mondays and ends on Sundays.

ISO 8601 has been adopted as Danish national standard DS/ISO 8601,^[5] but it is not widely used.

Time

Written time is almost always in the 24-hour clock. In spoken language, a mixture of the two systems are used:

• When giving exact times, or when speaking in official settings (radio, TV, etc.), the 24-hour clock is always used.
• When speaking informally, the 12-hour clock is often used. Minutes are usually rounded off to the nearest five minutes like this: <the hour>, <5, 10 or 20 [minutes]> <past, to> <the hour/the following hour>, a quarter <past, to> <the hour/following hour>, half <the following hour> or five <past, to> half <the following hour>. More accurately like this: <1-29 [minutes]> past <the hour>, half <the following hour> or <29-1 [minutes]> to <the following hour>. In these styles, the word for "minutes" is usually but not always left out.

References

1. ↑ Dansk Sprognævn: Retskrivningsordbogen, § 42. Forkortelsespunktum, afsnit 3: Ordenstal
2. ↑ Dansk Sprognævn: Retskrivningsordbogen, § 60. Skråstreg, afsnit 3: I tal og datoer
3. 1 2 3 Dansk Sprognævn: Datoer
4. ↑ Danish language locale for Denmark, Narrative Cultural Specification"
5. ↑ "DS/ISO 8601:2005". Dansk Standard. Retrieved 2011-01-08.